Sunday, July 18, 2010

Focus Focus Focus

I HAVE GOT TO GET FOCUSED!

I'm really ready to start my new MS, but I decided to do a lot of planning and prep work before starting. I've been working on character bios, but I'm having trouble staying focused. I keep getting sucked into different things. I'm thinking I just need to get on with it, start writing the book and then go back and strengthen some of these things after I've gotten started.

I think this is typical of my personality type. I'm not an organized micro-management type. So I think I'm just going to get on with it.

3 comments:

Frustrating, huh? Wouldn't it be nice to steal away to a deserted island with no Internet access or reception for mobile devices AT ALL. Scary, but nice. Ok, I shall stop commenting on your blog and let you GET TO IT!

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Melissa's Myths for Mondays

Starting on Monday 8/23/10 I am going to be posting some of the things I believed about writing and the publishing industry before I ventured into this wonderful journey, and some of the things I’ve learned since. Many of you may never have held the mythologies that I have or fallen into the pit falls that I’ve experienced, but if you have I hope these entries will demonstrate that you’re not alone. For those of you who are newer on your journey than I am, I hope that you can learn from me, and my wonderful followers. That’s what the writing community is all about.

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Why I Write

I've always had a very strained relationship with Grammar and Punctuation (and don't even talk to me about Spelling, he and I are from different planets.) Early in my life, I checked writing or anything that had to do with writing off my list of "career options". How could I dream of being a writer, journalist, English teacher, if I couldn't tell a gerund from a dangling modifier. But yet, I always had these stories.

Stories inundated my brain from the time I woke up, until well after I should have been asleep. They caused me to stare into space during most of my classes and led my teachers to believe that I was developmentally disabled. Characters bantered back and forth in my head and frequently slipped out into open conversations with me, making me appear to be delusional. Fortunately, I was neither.

Finally after years of trying to fit myself into an unsuitable career, I decided to release my stories by writing them down. It was amazing. Characters who were stunted, ever trapped in chrysalis could unfurl their wings and take flight. Light, color, and texture was blasted onto venues that had been hidden in shadow. Plots could unfold and be resolved, instead of looping back to the beginning over and over again.

So now I know that I am a writer. I'm attempting to make the aquaintance of Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling, and I'm making some progress in our relationship. But I've also come to realize that writing is about a lot more than dangling modifiers. It's about crafting a story. But for me writing is not enough. I want to be published as well. So that's my goal, and I'll keep at it no matter how long it takes.